Abstract
DIAMONDS commonly occur in kimberlites, lamproites and alluvial sediments derived from these rocks. More recently, diamonds (or their graphite pseudomorphs) have been discovered in ultramafic massifs1 and picrites2. Here we report the occurrence of diamonds in situ in crustal rocks: highly retrograded high-pressure metamorphic garnet–pyroxene and pyroxene–carbonate–garnet rocks, biotite gneisses and schists from the Kokchetav massif, northern Kazakhstan, USSR. The diamonds are cubo-octahedral, averaging 12 μm in size, and occur in zircons, and with euhedral graphite as inclusions in unzoned garnets. We believe that the zircon and garnet matrices protected these diamonds from retrogressive transformation to graphite. Mica, rutile, titanite, clinopyroxene, kyanite and zircon also occur as inclusions in garnet, often intergrown with the diamonds. Equilibration relations of inclusions and host garnets indicate that both diamonds and graphite crystallized from a fluid phase under static conditions at pressures of ⩾40 kbar and temperatures >900–1,000 °C.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Pearson, D. G., Davies, G. R., Nixon, P. H. & Milledge, H. J. Nature 338, 60–62 (1989).
Kaminsky, F. V., Chernaya, I. P. & Cherny, A. V. Miner. Zh. 8, 39–45 (1986).
Zonenshain, L. P., Kuzmin, M. I. & Moralev, V. M. Global Tectonics, Magmatism and Metallogeny (Nedra, Moscow, 1976).
Rosen, O. M. in Tectonics of Median Massives 65–85 (Nauka, Moscow, 1976).
Sobolev, N. V., Dobretsov, N. L., Bakirov, A. B. & Shatsky, V. S. Geol. Soc. Am. Mem. 164, 349–363 (1986).
Jagoutz, E., Shatsky, V. S., Sobolev, N. V. & Pokhilenko, N. P. in Workshop on Diamonds, 28th Int. Geol. Congr. (eds Boyd, F. R., Meyer, H. O. A. & Sobolev, N. V.) 32–35 (Geophysical Laboratory, Washington, DC, 1989).
Sobolev, N. V. Deep-seated Inclusions in Kimberlites and the Problem of the Composition of the Upper Mantle (Am. Geophys. Un., Washington, DC, 1977).
Smith, D. C. in Progress in Experimental Petrology (eds Henderson, C. M. B. & Hamilton, D. L.) 193–194 (NERC, London, 1981).
Smith, D. C. Abst. 26th Congr. Geol. Int. 1, 145 (Paris, 1980).
Franz, G. & Spear, F. S. Chem. Geol. 50, 33–46 (1985).
Ellis, D. J. & Green, D. H. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 71, 13–32 (1979).
Sunagawa, I. in Materials Science of the Earth's Interior (ed. Sunagawa, I.) 303–330 (Terra Scientific, Tokyo, 1984).
Orlov, Y. L., Bulienkiv, N. A. & Martovitsky, V. P. Dokl. Mad Nauk SSSR 252, 703–707 (1983).
Spear, K. E. Earth Miner. Sci. 56, 53–59 (1987).
Lang, A. K. in The Properties of Diamond (ed. Field, J.) 425–469 (Academic, London, 1979).
Orlov, Y. L. The Mineralogy of the Diamond (Nauka, Moscow, 1977).
Robinson, D. N. Miner. Sci. Engng 10, 55–72 (1978).
Pokhilenko, N. P., Sobolev, N. V. & Yefimova, E. S. Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 266, 212–216 (1982).
Sobolev, N. V., Tomilenko, A. A. & Shatsky, V. S. Geol. Geofiz. 4, 55–58 (1985).
Simakov, S. K. Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 278, 953–957 (1984).
Haggerty, S. E. Nature 320, 34–38 (1986).
Navon, O., Hutcheon, I. D., Rossman, G. R. & Wasserburg, G. J. Nature 335, 784–789 (1988).
Polkanov, Y. A. Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 173, 901–902 (1967).
Koksharov, I. F. & Polkanov, Y. A. Trans. Fersman Miner. Mus. 21, 183–185 (1972).
Kravtsov, A. I., Kropotova, O. I., Bobrov, V. A., Kirikilitsa, S. I. & Polkanov, Y. A. Geokhimiya 1, 143–146 (1980).
Sobolev, N. V., Galimov, E. M., Smith, C. B., Yefimova, E. S. & Hall, A. E. Geol. Geofiz 12, 5–19 (1989).
Smith, C. B. in Native Elements in Meteorites and Continental Lithosphere (ed. Sobolev, N. V.) 31–36 (Inst. Geol. Geophys. Siberian Div. Acad. Sci. USSR, Novosibirsk, 1985).
Meyer, H. O. A. Am. Miner. 70, 344–355 (1985).
Harris, J. W. in Mantle Xenoliths (ed. Nixon, P. H.) 477–500 (Wiley, New York, 1987).
Sobolev, N. V., Galimov, E. M., Ivanosvskaya, I. N. & Yefimova, E. S. Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 249, 1217–1220 (1979).
Jaques, A. L. et al. in Proc. 4th Int. Kimb. Conf. (ed. Ross, J.) 966–989 (Blackwell Sci., Melbourne, 1989).
Chopin, C. Contr. Miner. Petrol. 86, 107–118 (1984).
Smith, D. C. Nature 310, 641–644 (1984).
Sobolev, N. V. & Shatsky, V. S. Geol. Geofiz. 7, 77–80 (1987).
Schreyer, W. Fortschr. Miner. 63, 222–261 (1985).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sobolev, N., Shatsky, V. Diamond inclusions in garnets from metamorphic rocks: a new environment for diamond formation. Nature 343, 742–746 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/343742a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/343742a0
This article is cited by
-
Ambient synthesis of diamond in saline alcohol
Carbon Letters (2024)
-
Early Ordovician to early Silurian forearc accretionary processes in front of the Selety–Stepnyak arc in the Kokchetav area, northern Kazakhstan: implications for continental growth in the northwestern Altaids
International Journal of Earth Sciences (2023)
-
Plate tectonics in the twenty-first century
Science China Earth Sciences (2023)
-
Metamorphic evolution of the East Tethys tectonic domain and its tectonic implications
Science China Earth Sciences (2023)
-
Tectonic evolution of convergent plate margins and its geological effects
Science China Earth Sciences (2022)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.